From: Wade Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Wed 18 Dec 2002 - 13:45:59 GMT
On Tuesday, December 17, 2002, at 09:47 PM, Grant Callaghan wrote:
> After the first few, hardly any of the messages under that name
> discussed that subject.
This is endemic to the listserv/internet. Lots of people, in
lots of places, have mentioned a rather a solid mass of
'shoulds' about this.
Here's a whole list from RFC 1855 at
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html-
- Wade
PS- Don't do as I do, do as I say....
*****
3.1 User Guidelines
3.1.1 General Guidelines for mailing lists and NetNews
• Read both mailing lists and newsgroups for one to two months
before you post anything. This helps you to get an understanding
of the culture of the group.
• Do not blame the system administrator for the behavior of the
system users.
• Consider that a large audience will see your posts. That may
include your present or your next boss. Take care in what you
write. Remember too, that mailing lists and Newsgroups are
frequently archived, and that your words may be stored for a
very long time in a place to which many people have access.
• Assume that individuals speak for themselves, and what they
say does not represent their organization (unless stated
explicitly).
• Remember that both mail and news take system resources. Pay
attention to any specific rules covering their uses your
organization may have.
• Messages and articles should be brief and to the point. Don't
wander off-topic, don't ramble and don't send mail or post
messages solely to point out other people's errors in typing or
spelling. These, more than any other behavior, mark you as an
immature beginner.
• Subject lines should follow the conventions of the group.
• Forgeries and spoofing are not approved behavior.
• Advertising is welcomed on some lists and Newsgroups, and
abhorred on others! This is another example of knowing your
audience before you post. Unsolicited advertising which is
completely off-topic will most certainly guarantee that you get
a lot of hate mail.
• If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure
you summarize the original at the top of the message, or include
just enough text of the original to give a context. This will
make sure readers understand when they start to read your
response. Since NetNews, especially, is proliferated by
distributing the postings from one host to another, it is
possible to see a response to a message before seeing the
original. Giving context helps everyone. But do not include the
entire original!
• Again, be sure to have a signature which you attach to your
message. This will guarantee that any peculiarities of mailers
or newsreaders which strip header information will not delete
the only reference in the message of how people may reach you.
• Be careful when you reply to messages or postings. Frequently
replies are sent back to the address which originated the post -
which in many cases is the address of a list or group! You may
accidentally send a personal response to a great many people,
embarrassing all involved. It's best to type in the address
instead of relying on "reply."
• Delivery receipts, non-delivery notices, and vacation
programs are neither totally standardized nor totally reliable
across the range of systems connected to Internet mail. They are
invasive when sent to mailing lists, and some people consider
delivery receipts an invasion of privacy. In short, do not use
them.
• If you find a personal message has gone to a list or group,
send an apology to the person and to the group.
• If you should find yourself in a disagreement with one
person, make your responses to each other via mail rather than
continue to send messages to the list or the group. If you are
debating a point on which the group might have some interest,
you may summarize for them later.
• Don't get involved in flame wars. Neither post nor respond to
incendiary material.
• Avoid sending messages or posting articles which are no more
than gratuitous replies to replies.
• Be careful with monospacing fonts and diagrams. These will
display differently on different systems, and with different
mailers on the same system.
• There are Newsgroups and Mailing Lists which discuss topics
of wide varieties of interests. These represent a diversity of
lifestyles, religions, and cultures. Posting articles or sending
messages to a group whose point of view is offensive to you
simply to tell them they are offensive is not acceptable.
Sexually and racially harassing messages may also have legal
implications. There is software available to filter items you
might find objectionable.
3.1.2 Mailing List Guidelines
There are several ways to find information about what mailing
lists exist on the Internet and how to join them. Make sure you
understand your organization's policy about joining these lists
and posting to them. In general it is always better to check
local resources first before trying to find information via the
Internet. Nevertheless, there are a set of files posted
periodically to news.answers which list the Internet mailing
lists and how to subscribe to them. This is an invaluable
resource for finding lists on any topic. See also references
[9,13,15] in the Selected Bibliography.
• Send subscribe and unsubscribe messages to the appropriate
address. Although some mailing list software is smart enough to
catch these, not all can ferret these out. It is your
responsibility to learn how the lists work, and to send the
correct mail to the correct place. Although many many mailing
lists adhere to the convention of having a "-request" alias for
sending subscribe and unsubscribe messages, not all do. Be sure
you know the conventions used by the lists to which you
subscribe.
• Save the subscription messages for any lists you join. These
usually tell you how to unsubscribe as well.
• In general, it's not possible to retrieve messages once you
have sent them. Even your system administrator will not be able
to get a message back once you have sent it. This means you must
make sure you really want the message to go as you have written
it.
• The auto-reply feature of many mailers is useful for in-house
communication, but quite annoying when sent to entire mailing
lists. Examine "Reply-To" addresses when replying to messages
from lists. Most auto-replys will go to all members of the list.
• Don't send large files to mailing lists when Uniform Resource
Locators (URLs) or pointers to ftp-able versions will do. If you
want to send it as multiple files, be sure to follow the culture
of the group. If you don't know what that is, ask.
• Consider unsubscribing or setting a "nomail" option (when
it's available) when you cannot check your mail for an extended
period.
• When sending a message to more than one mailing list,
especially if the lists are closely related, apologize for
cross-posting.
• If you ask a question, be sure to post a summary. When doing
so, truly summarize rather than send a cumulation of the
messages you receive.
• Some mailing lists are private. Do not send mail to these
lists uninvited. Do not report mail from these lists to a wider
audience.
• If you are caught in an argument, keep the discussion focused
on issues rather than the personalities involved.
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